Who better to challenge a self-righteous South Carolina conservative chickenhawk than a "libertarian-leaning" former state Treasurer, convicted felon, and reality TV show star ("Southern Charm" on Bravo)? How fitting. How entertaining.

How implausible.

Then again, this is good ol' Southern "charm" we're talking about. And what could be more charming than a 51-year-old ex-felon with a 3-month-old daughter married to a 22-year-old fellow state politician? Especially a guy who was busted for dabbling in cocaine who claims "he has the right ideas to save the country."

When it comes to South Carolina's long-time senator, there's a love-hate relationship with him. A lot of Republicans like him because he's a cute little imp of a man, not really anyone who does anything, and that quiet, gentlemanly demeanor goes over well with the unwashed of his state.

But for the Tea Party, not so much. Fortunately they're a minority recently stepped off of their mother ship from the planet Moron and their association with the GOP is strictly a coincidence. Their spaceship crash landed and they were overtaken by the drum beat of hatred and bigotry coming from the Republican Tent. Besides, the word "No" in moron means "fart" and that puts a perpetual smile on their faces, as the GOP says "no" to everything.

To get a flavor for what these Tea Party aliens think of Senator Graham, or as Joel McHale referred to him at the recent White House Correspondents Dinner, " the Blanche DuBois of "A Streecar Named Desire..." here's a bit on Blanche as reported by The Beast:

With a vitriol usually reserved for rapists and traitors, some of the most extreme Palmetto State conservatives have burned Graham in effigy and then flushed him down a toilet; derided him as a “war mongering, cowardly, fiscal liberal whore;” openly questioned the unmarried senator’s sexuality with the label “Miss Lindsey,” and promised Low Country voters a 2014 primary challenge against Graham of epic proportions.

Sadly for America, and with great relief for Blanche, five candidates are splitting the conservative and Tea Party vote. Graham will easily win his party's nomination. In South Carolina, that's tantamount to winning the general election. The big question is whether he can muster up 50% of he primary vote to avoid a run-off. Now that could be interesting if the true conservatives would coalesce around his second place finisher should there be a run-off.

But Graham isn’t just a whore for our unwieldy taxpayer-subsidized military industrial complex – he’s a whore for all sorts of special interests. In fact he’s everything that’s wrong with Washington, D.C. – and he’s a “Republican.” Hell, recent television ads run by those same special interests are trying to fool impressionable South Carolinians (of which there are many, sadly) into believing that Graham is a “conservative.”

Meanwhile Graham – in an effort to ramp up those “conservative” credentials in anticipation of his 2014 reelection bid – is raising holy hell (again) in Washington, D.C. over the 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. His public relations machine is also placing plenty of nice puff pieces in the Beltway media extolling his statesmanship and proclaiming his invincibility.

Looks like sometime later today, we'll know if South Carolina is going to be sending it's "whore" back to Washington to keep in tact the three musketeers of crazy land-- John McCain and that lady who always stands behind them, I think her name's Senator Kelly Ayotte. She's the dumb one -- and by dumb I mean can't speak. She's been elected to the senate to just stand and nod. That's her super skill. McCain's is he can fly -- off at the mouth and Graham's super power is he's a master of disguise (he's equally as comfortable portraying a real conservative as he is on the boards playing Blanche Dubois, if Joel McHale is really onto something).

Can't wait to see the results of this primary. Listen closely and you might even hear the screeching breaks of that "Streetcar Named Desire."

All politics in South Carolina is loco, I mean local. No, I take that back. With the recent comments by Republican U.S. senatorial candidate Dave Feliciano about sitting Senator Lindsey Graham, there's definitely a bit a craziness going on in the Palmetto state. HuffPo:

Police officer and political novice Dave Feliciano, who is contesting the Republican primary to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), said on the steps of the South Carolina state House Thursday that Graham is "ambiguously gay."

That dainty, gentlemanly squire from South Carolina, the one with that boyish, Beauregard flamboyance is gay -- or ambiguously gay? "Why I do, declare, how unsportin' of that kindly good-natured man, to be pulling the cotton down over our eyes and passing himself off as straight."

Come to think of it, don't ambiguously gay men participate in all kinds of "unseemly" activities? I guess when you settle in and think some about it, Mister Graham is kind of genteel. He's got smooth, soft skin and always has a determined look on his face. I just figured that it was gas -- even the finest cooked of southern cuisine can do that to a man. It's just so hard to think of him as a Liberace boy. Then again, those pursed lips. That soft-spoken, almost feminine voice. And that heaven-sent southern charm -- haven't seen anything like it since Frank Underwood in House of Cards. I suppose that should have been a give-away. Kevin Spacey, Lindsey Graham. I do see a certain resemblance. And it is a rare sight to see Senator Graham without Senator McCain on his arm. Those two do travel a lot together. Israel. England. France. Say, come to think of it, aren't those countries where gays are openly accepted?

Now all this talk has got me to wondering-- what Lindsey was referring to when he was photographed with that boyfriend of his, Mr. McCain? You know the picture I'm talking about -- the "size" discussion:

And if it's what I'm thinking about, I'm quite insulted for Lindsey when that old cradle-robbing pervert Sen. McCain referred to Sen. Graham in this photo:

Now I'm not one to tell tales out of school, but I did come across this home video. It's been circulatin' around the Mint Julep and Bourbon Society in Charleston for some time now. I was thinking it was just some plantation hoax, but now I'm having some second thoughts. Maybe good ol' Lindsey IS playing for the other side, in an ambiguous way.